conciliating the strangers.  There Vasco Nunez sent away the Quarequanos, and ordered that the sick, who had been left in their land, should come and join him.  In the meanwhile he sent Francisco Pizarro, Juan de Ezcarag, and Alonzo Martin to discover the shortest roads by which the sea might be reached.  It was the last of these who arrived first at the coast, and, entering a canoe which chanced to lie there, and pushing it into the waves, let it float a little while, and, after pleasing himself with having been the first Spaniard who entered the South Sea, returned to seek Balboa.

Balboa with twenty-six men descended to the sea, and arrived at the coast early in the evening of the 29th of that month; they all seated themselves on the shore and awaited the tide, which was at that time on the ebb.  At length it returned in its violence to cover the spot where they were; then Balboa, in complete armor, lifting his sword in one hand, and in the other a banner on which was painted an image of the Virgin Mary with the arms of Castile at her feet, raised it, and began to march into the midst of the waves, which reached above his knees, saying in a loud voice:  “Long live the high and mighty sovereigns of Castile!  Thus in their names do I take possession of these seas and regions; and if any other prince, whether Christian or infidel, pretends any right to them, I am ready and resolved to oppose him, and to assert the just claims of my sovereigns.”

The whole band replied with acclamations to the vow of their captain, and exprest themselves determined to defend, even to death, their acquisition against all the potentates in the world; they caused this act to be confirmed in writing, by the notary of the expedition, Andres de Valderrabano; the anchorage in which it was solemnized was called the Gulf of San Miguel, the event happening on that day.

[1] Quintand’s account of this expedition is the best we have in Spanish literature.  It forms part of his “Lives of Celebrated Spaniards” (1807-1833), a standard work of the encyclopedia class.  Vasco Nunez de Balboa was born at Xerxes, in Spain, in 1475, and died in Panama about 1517.  His first visit to America was made in 1500.  Ten years later he went to Darien, where he became alcalde of a new settlement.  In 1512 he was made governor of San Domingo.

While Governor of San Domingo Balboa learned from the Indians that there was a great sea lying to the south and west, and in September, 1513, set out from Darien to discover it.  After an adventurous journey he reached, on September 25th, a mountain top from which he first saw the Pacific.  After building some ships for use on the Pacific and transporting them with immense labor across the Isthmus, launching two of them, Balboa was arrested by the governor of the colony on a charge of contemplated revolt and beheaded.

    [2] Careta was an Indian chief whose friendship Balboa secured.